Inside AJC

8/6/18 - Suwanee - Kerri Griffin, a kindergarten teacher at Level Creek Elementary School, talks to her students, Ana Fogle-Weekley and Owen DeGeorge, during the first day of school at Level Creek Elementary School on Monday, August 6. Griffin teaches one of the dual language immersion classes. Jenna Eason / Jenna.Eason@coxinc.com Photo: Jenna Eason/Jenna.Eason@coxinc.com

Key issues Georgia’s Legislature could handle this year

Budget/taxes: Gov.-elect Brian Kemp’s first state budget could top a record $27 billion, but there are plenty of questions, including whether he’ll be able to keep his campaign promise to raise teacher pay $5,000 and whether Georgia’s economy will continue on its long winning streak. Kemp also promised to cut the state income tax rate and push a constitutional amendment to cap state spending. However, the General Assembly just cut the tax rate last year, and many lawmakers are dubious about an artificial spending cap.

Education: Kemp promised teachers a $5,000 pay raise. That commitment, by his campaign’s estimate, would cost about $600 million a year, but that wouldn’t cover the associated benefits that rise with pay. Whether Kemp will have the political capital to pursue other significant education policies — he pledged to overhaul the decades-old school funding formula, for instance — remains to be seen.

Recommended for you

Recommended for you

Recommended for you

Most read

Key players: The chairmen of the respective education committees for the House and the Senate, but both bodies are leaderless. Incoming Lt. Gov. Geoff Duncan and veteran House Speaker David Ralston, both Republicans, will play a key role in filling those vacuums.

Prospects: Uncertain.

November 6, 2018 Atlanta : Voters waited over an hour to vote at Henry W. Grady High School at 29 Charles Allen Dr NE, in Atlanta on Tuesday Nov. 6, 2018. Metro Atlanta polling places reported steady lines as voters went to the polls Tuesday. Georgia voters were asked Nov. 6 whether the state constitution should be amended to give a 10-year, $200 million boost to land conservation, solidify the states commitment to crime victims and cut timberland taxes. Five proposed amendments appeared on the ballot, which most notably settles the long and hard-fought races for governor and other key offices. JOHN SPINK/JSPINK@AJC.COM
(JOHN SPINK / AJC/JOHN SPINK / AJC)

Voting: Paper ballots could replace Georgia’s 16-year-old electronic voting machines. Without a paper ballot, election officials lack a physical record to verify results stored digitally on hard drives and memory cards. State lawmakers plan to consider switching to either paper ballots filled out by hand or paper ballots printed by a computer. Hand-marked paper ballots would cost roughly $30 million, and ballot-printing machines would cost well over $100 million.

Prospects: Good. State legislators want to buy a new voting system this year after a federal judge said the state’s electronic voting machines pose a “concrete risk” because they could be vulnerable to hacking, tampering or malfunction.

FORSYTH - Georgia’s medical marijuana law, authored by State Rep. Allen Peake, is known as Haleigh’s Hope Act and legalizes the possession of cannabis oil for people suffering from a limited number of illnesses. Janea Cox uses the oil to treat her daughter Haleigh, 7, at their home in Forsyth, Ga. The Coxes must still travel to Colorado to obtain the medical marijuana used to treat Haleigh. Feb. 17, 2017. (BITA HONARVAR/SPECIAL)

Medical marijuana: Legislation will be introduced to allow medical marijuana cultivation, manufacturing and distribution to registered medical marijuana patients. Georgia’s medical marijuana law has been in place since 2015, but it remains illegal for patients to buy or transport the drug. A state-run system to grow and sell medical marijuana would give patients a legal way to obtain a medicine they say helps treat severe seizures and deadly cancer.

Prospects: Decent. A growing number of lawmakers in the Republican-led General Assembly support state controls for distribution of medical marijuana.

Stock photo

Gaming: For years, gaming advocates have pushed for the legalization of casinos and horse racing in Georgia. A recent U.S. Supreme Court ruling also opened up the opportunity to allow sports betting in Georgia and across the country. Supporters of the various forms of gaming believe having the new administration gives them a chance to see exactly where Kemp stands on each issue.

Gun control: Gun rights supporters are excited about the opportunities of having Kemp in the Governor’s Mansion — someone who ran touting his support of the Second Amendment. Kemp said he supports approving the permitless carrying of handguns and one lawmaker already has filed such legislation. Gun control advocates feel emboldened by last year’s federal outlawing of bump stocks — a mechanism that gives weapons rapid-fire shooting capabilities. Still, many hope to close what they call a loophole in the reporting of people who have been involuntarily committed to a mental institution. Current law allows Georgia to purge the records after five years, allowing the purchase of firearms. A version of the bill cleared the House last year but stalled in the Senate.

Supporters of the “religious liberty” measure at the Georgia statehouse. AJC file photo.
(The Atlanta Journal-Constitution)

Religious liberty: Kemp said during his campaign that he would support a “religious liberty” bill as long as it was identical to a similar federal bill that became law in 1993. Opponents of such a proposal say it would amount to state-sanctioned discrimination by religious organizations against the gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender community. They also worry that such a measure could motivate businesses to locate elsewhere. But supporters say it would not be discriminatory, and they believe religious organizations need greater legal protections to exercise their beliefs.

Health care: After years of talk, this could be the year that the Legislature takes action on two major issues, Certificate of Need, or CON, and whether to seek a “waiver” drawing down federal health care funding for those who can’t afford it. Within the health care business world the CON fight is an all-consuming battle, with the potential to suck oxygen away from everything. CON is a regulation that limits what kind of new health care businesses can be built, in order to protect hospitals; businesses say it stifles choice. A waiver could expand Medicaid coverage in Georgia or just stabilize the current Affordable Care Act insurance market.